How To Get Gen Zers To Read Your Business’s Blog

You’re a business leader, and you know how important it is to get as many people reading your business’s blog as possible. Whether you’re running a fashion ecommerce store, or a brick-and-mortar cafe in the center of town, blogging is one of the best ways of attracting new customers. Everything is driven by connections to customers online these days, and in addition to having a website with all of your business’s information, you run a blog where you post about subjects relevant to your industry. Usually, you’re pretty successful in getting readers from a variety of backgrounds–but there’s something about Gen Zers, the youngest generation in America, that’s particularly challenging.

Maybe it’s their need to connect their personal lives to the media they consume, or maybe it’s how skeptical they are about advertisements that show up in their Facebook newsfeeds. Luckily, however, there are some guaranteed ways to draw in this audience–and here’s how.

Be phone-friendly

A large part of growing your business is adapting it to the needs of your customers. And when it comes to Gen Zers, 61 percent of whom researched products on their phones in 2016 before purchasing, you need to make your blog phone-friendly. You can’t just write great content and put it online–not if these potential customers are going to be pinching at the screen to read your articles, or waiting for images or videos to load. Gen Zers have grown up with technology at their fingertips, and they aren’t going to have the patience to wait.

And generally, it’s good to optimize for mobile, especially as more people start searching for products there instead of on their desktops. Google voice and other voice-powered search features make this even easier. According to Change Conversations, a great option is to make your website mobile-first from the get-go. They explain: “As the name suggests, mobile-first sites are created specifically for the mobile platform. This option often uses a simple design with a single column layout that is scaled up when being viewed on a desktop, usually with little loss of website features when transitioning between different platforms. This can be a good alternative to creating separate mobile and desktop versions of your website.”

This will also benefit your SEO generally, as more people start viewing your blog posts on their phones while waiting for a doctor’s appointment or on the long subway commute to work. And it’s never a bad idea to get creative: what about a podcast?

Personalize everything

One of the biggest challenges of getting the attention of Gen Zers is that they resent it when they feel they’re being catered to too much. If you’re going to include lots of OMGs and emojis, but it doesn’t fit with your brand, they’re going to notice. It’s smarter to take them seriously as customers, especially as many of them are in their early twenties now and expect to be treated as such. If you understand their quirky, absurdist sense of humor (more on that here), and it works with your brand, then go ahead and write a post with GIFs included.

But if that’s not what works for you, it’s smart to personalize your content for this generation. Create buyer personas for the different Gen Zers you’re attracting, and ask them to give you feedback. You can do this with surveys, and you can also ask around on social media (another important component, which we’ll get to in a second). Using analytics is also a smart idea, and you can learn more about free tools here. If Gen Zers feel like you’re truly speaking to them and their needs, they’ll respond in kind. Even though it can be hard to get their attention, they’re loyal to a brand once they feel it’s the right one for them.

In a similar vein, paying lots of attention to your customers is key. Reply thoroughly to questions from customers, whether they’re posted on social media or written in an email. And use chatbots, which are available 24/7 for a generation that’s online 24/7. As of 2018, 15 percent of American adults said they had used a chatbot to interact with a company in the last twelve months. This figure is sure to rise as this becomes a larger part of the business world.

Be social media savvy

Finally, you need to be on social media. This Generation is constantly checking apps like Instagram and Snapchat, so you need to be on there, too. 47 percent of teens consider Snapchat their favorite social media platform, and if you get their attention now, they’ll be loyal customers in the future. To learn how to captivate this generation over social media–without making them feel like you’re patronizing–check out these strategies from NewsWhip.

These are some of the best strategies for making your business’s blog more friendly to Gen Zers. What do you find most challenging about attracting Gen Zers to your business’s blog?